Dreamtime

There was a large, brown, silvertip grizzly huffing along the trail behind me. I suppose if he stood, he'd be about 8 feet tall and weigh in at 700 to 800 lbs. A very large muscular individual ... afraid of nothing. I on the other hand, was afraid of meeting him. I looked about for options ... saw a large dense tree with a thick branch that I could leap for. A short run and a leap as hard and high as I could go, enabled me to just get my hands secured on the branch while the momentum helped to swing my legs up securely around it. I scrambled quickly to get on top of the branch and further up the tree out of sight. Grizzly's aren't known for having really good eyesight ... but they are good at smelling things. Forcing myself to breathe slowly in and out, I stayed as quiet as possible.

The grizzly was following the smell of my tracks ... until they suddenly ended. He stopped, swung his head up and around in an arc as he sniffed the air, and sat back on his haunches to view the area. I'd been upwind of him when he detected my presence and huffed his disapproval. I rapidly departed back the way I'd come ... and he'd followed. But now that my scent had weakened, hearing no further sound, and seeing nothing threatening, he looked around, dropped back down to all fours, and wandered around the area a bit. Finally heading off through the brush and trees to another destination of his choosing.

I did not come down out of the tree anytime soon. I didn't know if he intended to circle the area and see if what he followed would appear again. I gave him time to get hungry or bored and go away ... before I finally came down and detoured around the area where he had first been when we originally connected with each other. For all I knew, he'd gone back there for food, rest, or some other reason ... good enough reason for me to want to avoid that area.